Vocabulary.  It’s a big deal.  Teachers spend a LOT of time thinking about and planning ways to build student vocabulary.  But here’s the thing:  it’s not just about what we put in front of students to do.  It’s also a great deal about what we ourselves do.  Teacher talk matters a whole lot.  What we say has an important impact.  

I don’t mean using “I” phrases or speaking kindly or respectfully.  I mean something different.  

When I say teacher talk, I mean the actual vocabulary we use.  Let me first explain why before I give tips on what to do. 

Boosting student vocabulary is a very big deal because it’s one of the main drivers–and roadblocks–of reading comprehension.  In fact, the  National Reading Panel named it as one of the 5 pillars of instruction.  

This, of course, makes perfect sense.  If kids don’t know what the words on the page mean, comprehension will very likely break down–or not happen at all.  The more advanced the text and topic, the more advanced the vocabulary.  This is where those tier 3 words: the technical, very academic words, are heavy.  

Which means our students need to continue to build a large vocabulary bank.  We can teach some words explicitly, of course, but indirect instruction goes a very long way.  The National Reading Panel even advised us that “vocabulary should be taught both directly and indirectly.” 

Indirect vocabulary instruction is my favorite:  it’s unbelievably simple to weave in, you can use words again and again for more “stick,” and it takes no extra time.  Explicit instruction, while still important to do, takes much more time, greatly limits the amount of words kids will be exposed to, and revisiting these words again and again isn’t likely to happen. In her book, Talk about Understanding, Ellin Oliver Keene shares Beck’s work on vocabulary, which tells us that “Children learn a remarkable number of words through interacting with others and discussing words–between 200 and 300 new words a month!”  This is in stark contrast to the few we’re able to pull to take time to explicitly teach.  

Let’s talk about two powerful ways to indirectly teach vocabulary.  They’re both super easy and cost zero dollars–something I always support.

Reading, of course, is one of the very best ways to build a vocabulary.  When reading aloud, we’ll of course explicitly teach a few specific tier 2 and even tier 3 words, but kids will be exposed to even more words that you don’t point out at all, just from hearing the story.  

Using read alouds to expose students to the vocabulary that’s needed for upcoming content studies is a prime example of this, and is made far more powerful when you create text sets to read.  

Reading independently is also a big way kids pick up more words.  As they read texts with greater complexity, they’ll naturally encounter more and more words.  Independent reading means kids get choice–at least a good portion of choice–in what they read.   Choice is what fosters engagement, and engagement is a key piece to becoming a reader.  This is something we must be mindful of in this era of mandated curriculum. 

Harvard’s Graduate School of Education’s Dr. Catherine Snow warns us of this very issue in a recent interview on The Science of Reading podcast.  She urges teachers that “The other domain that is very much emphasized in preventing reading difficulties and that was not accessible to the National Reading Panel report was motivation, love, enjoyment.  Kids don’t learn to read so they can pronounce words correctly.  They learn to read so they can have fun reading good stories, so they can learn about topics that are of interest to them, so they can pursue their own curiosity.”  It’s this kind of captive reading that helps kids (and all readers) want to read more, which of course leads to more reading–and more exposure to words.  

“The opportunity to read books that children select themselves reinforces the sense that this is an authentic, valuable activity.  It isn’t an exercise in demonstrating skills.  That, I think, is a crucial piece of creating a good environment for literacy that we’ve started to neglect.”

 Dr. Catherine Snow, The Science of Reading Podcast

Another great way to build vocabulary?  By paying attention to our own teacher talk.  

Often, teachers assume that they need to reduce the complexity level of their own language so that students will better understand them.  We tend to water down our own vocabularies.  But this has a detrimental effect.  In Talk About Understanding, Ellin Oliver Keene reminds us that when we do this we are  “missing the opportunity to model more formal language that they may use for different purposes and audiences.”  

We also aren’t giving our kids enough credit when we do this.  So often, and in many contexts, they can handle more than we think.  If we constantly diminish our own vocabulary, we continue to expose kids to only lower level words.  If we hope to to expand students’ vocabulary, they have to hear the words in the first place. (Or should I say if we endeavor to increase students’ vocabulary…)  With all the focus on what the reading research is telling us, we understand how very important this oral language piece of the puzzle is.  It’s a lot of what goes into that upper Language Comprehension strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope.  

“I see academic language, and exposure to academic language as an expansion of children’s language skills that both contributes to successful literacy–to successful reading comprehension–and gets built through encounters with text, but also encounters with oral activities.” 

Dr. Catherine Snow

We can augment the level of our own teacher talk very easily.  

• It’s all about using higher level words when you give directions or have conversations, like my “endeavor” example above.  Don’t water down your words.  As you first use these words, you can parenthetically add the watered down synonym, but after a few exposures to the words, you can drop the definition.  (Assemble yourselves at the door please.  Line up at the door please.)

• Another prime opportunity is when students explain something.  We all know how unclear they can be when responding.  Often, we say things like “I see what you’re saying” or “Yeah, ok, good thinking” or, when it’s most confusing or off the mark, “Can anyone else add to what ____ is saying?”  But this teaches the child nothing.  In fact, it actually sends the message that what they just said, garbled as it may have been, was enough. Instead, we can slightly rephrase what they’re saying but lift the level of language for them to hear.  “I want to be sure I’m understanding you.  Are you saying…..” or, “So, in other words….” or “Ok, so what you’re saying is…”

• Even casually, outside of the classroom works. Any interaction with kids is a prime opportunity to expose them to words.  Conversations in the hallway, on the playground, or in the lunchroom all count.  I just had this opportunity the other day on cafeteria duty, when I chided a third grader for being ” not just loud, but exceptionally loud.”

• Don’t forget that when we explain our actual teaching is an important time to be super clear and concise.  Dr. Dana Robertson reminds us that “If we’re not being very intentional in our language choices, we can tend to wander in how we explain things a little bit, which means students might lose focus or not pick up on key ideas, or the lesson might start to go on for 20-25 minutes.” It’s also another excellent opportunity to infuse strong vocabulary.

So don’t hide your robust vocabulary.  Your teacher talk will have a huge impact on students’ growing word banks.  

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 24-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers just like you as I can.